


I waited for the crash to come

by brynnmclean (ilfirin_estel)



Series: star wars ficlet collections [1]
Category: Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016)
Genre: Alternate POV ficlets, Angst, Background Bodhi Rook/Luke Skywalker - Freeform, Cassian Andor: Cunnilingus Addict, Enthusiastic Consent, Established Relationship, Explicit Sexual Content, F/M, Face-Sitting, Fluff, Friends With Benefits, Future bondage references, Gen, Hobbit Birthday Weekend, Implied Sexual Content, Jyn is a cat person, Kissing, Multiple Orgasms, NSFW ficlets are marked accordingly in chapter headings, Nightmares, Orgasm Delay/Denial, Originally Posted on Tumblr, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Pining, Porn with Feelings, Sharing a Bed, Some fics are connected to my cast some light 'verse, The Lucky Ship Cat of Rogue One, The Turbolift Scene, Unresolved Emotional Tension, Unresolved Romantic Tension, cast some light 'verse, sub!Cassian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-21
Updated: 2018-06-25
Packaged: 2018-11-03 08:32:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 25
Words: 17,492
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10963536
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilfirin_estel/pseuds/brynnmclean
Summary: A round-up of my Rogue One / Rebelcaptain ficlets (under 1k) originally posted on tumblr.





	1. The Kiss in the Turbolift - Jyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/160914163899/before-i-tripped-and-suddenly-wrote-11k-worth-of), but this was actually the first fic I started for the pairing.
> 
> (Also semi-intended to be connected to [cast some light](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9856910).)

As soon as the doors to the turbolift hiss shut, Cassian sags against the wall as if a vibroblade severed all the wires holding him up. Jyn staggers into him, thrown by the change in weight—and it’s awful, the sound he makes when she accidentally pushes against a wound. 

She recoils like a blaster shot, overtaxed muscles wrenching as dismay spikes through her. The apologies on her tongue burn back down her throat when she swallows against her own pain and nausea. 

Now that they’ve made it out of the chaos of battle—the roar of explosions, the whine of blaster fire, the shrieking of starfighters overhead suddenly distant and leaving her ears ringing—Jyn feels every bruise, every strain. She fights the urge to let it wash over her and pull her to the durasteel floor. Whatever she feels is nothing in comparison to what Cassian must be feeling. The sick snap of his body during his fall echoes in her head, and she swallows bile back down again.

Jyn sees him in flashes, the cuts bleeding sluggishly from his forehead and mouth, the bruise blooming purple around his eye, the color stark against his sick-grey pallor. His eyes are squeezed shut, brow furrowed, nostrils flaring as he breathes, unsteady.

His hand is heavy on her shoulder, fingers twisted in a rip in her vest. A shudder rolls through him to her and she veers closer, fear sharp and cold as shrapnel caught in her chest.

She touches him before she realizes what she’s doing—stars, she wishes for bacta patches, a medkit, _anything—_ her mind racing as she starts cataloguing all the possible injuries and how long it would take to heal them. _The next chance,_ she thinks inanely, planning out the path, picturing the shuttle, the stars, the medcenter. But the images are grainy, no strength or solidity or color, just hopeless black and white dreams that slip out of her grasp.

“Jyn,” Cassian murmurs, gripping her wrist with a grimace, and everything else falls away except for him. When she looks at him, there’s a light in his eyes that softens the lines of pain. Beneath her hand, there is the heat of him, his skin fever-flushed. He inhales, sharp, at her touch, but he lets her slide her fingers along his side, skirting over his fractured bones. 

Jyn’s throat feels raw, her voice scraped out of her and scattered to the winds. She can’t tell him what she wants to say— _I thought you were dead, but here you are, you came back, you keep coming back_ —but those words are nonsensical, and they can’t convey what is in her, the sheer exhausted relief at the mission being complete and not being alone in the aftermath.

“You look like shit,” she finally manages even though the thought she’d had up there on the platform at the sight of him through the smoke is caught behind her teeth, an ache: _Force, but he’s beautiful._

He makes a small sound that could almost be a laugh, one shoulder twitching the sketch of a shrug. “It’s all right. It’s over.” His lips curve into a smile that cuts through her, straight between her bruised ribs. Here he is before her, broken and bleeding, yet still warm, still breathing. 

There is nothing else to do but kiss him.

She fists the front of his shirt, her hand shaking as she gathers the scraps of strength to tug him closer, closer so she can press her mouth to his—off-center, she gets the corner of his mouth at first, but he adjusts and opens up to her.

He tastes like rust and salt, one hand pressed against the small of her back while the other cradles the side of her face, thumb grazing her cheekbone—and she wants to bury herself in him, find a way into his blood to heal his hurts, the fault-lines shaking him. The gentleness of his mouth on hers is devastating, stealing her breath when he pulls back and rests his forehead against hers. The way he says her name lights her on fire, filling up the hollow places in her chest.

It’s too much. It’s not enough. It’s not _fair—_ there’s no time for all that she wants, the fierce desire to _live_ so sudden and desperate in her. She wants to know him, the tenderness as well as the steel—the soldier, the spy, and the man.

“Cassian,” she says, so many words crowded in her mouth. There’s no time for all the wishes and questions and half-formed dreams.

“I know,” Cassian replies, a choked-off sound that makes Jyn think maybe he does, maybe his heart is cracking inside him too.

There’s no time to ask. The turbolift grinds to a halt and the doors open, letting the light and heat and dying of Scarif in.

They stumble out to face it together.


	2. Friends With Benefits - Cassian (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/159805283294/ugh-fwb-rebelcaptain-like-can-we-talk)! 
> 
> **ETA** : A little more about this ficlet [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165198143499/for-the-writing-meme-before-the-beginning).

Cassian wakes up alone, but the smell of Jyn lingers on his hands, even beneath the cheap, standard issue soap in the ‘fresher. He leans heavily against the sink and watches the tap water run over his fingers—and it’s a sweet sort of torture, looking at his hands and remembering sliding his fingers into the warm, wet heat of her. The thought of how she’d rocked into his touch and clenched down hard around him makes him shiver.

But every morning, he presses his fingertips against his lips for a moment, allowing himself to savor the memories of the night before just in case it was the last time. It’s been months now of Jyn coming to his room and letting him put his hands on her. It’s always a surprise to Cassian that she keeps coming back. 

He prefers using his hands and his mouth to get her off because he can make the sex last longer. He wants to make the most of the gift she gives him each time she crawls into his bed.

But there’s an ache in his chest whenever she wordlessly slips out of his arms and gathers up her clothes in the dark. He can’t deny that. And that desire—that _longing_ winds its way between his ribs and curls around his heart, flowing out into his veins. Loving Jyn is in him now, vital as breathing. He’s got to live with it. He wakes up in his empty bed and tells his reflection in the ‘fresher mirror that whatever she gives him back is enough. It has to be enough.

They’re… _friends._ They watch each other’s backs, they share meals, they confide in each other. He’s told her about moments in his past that no one else knows, save Kay. And she’s met him halfway, he thinks, having told him her own stories about fighting with Saw and after, running and hiding to survive. A hard, lonely life.

 _You’re not alone,_ he tells her, and it always brings a strange, small smile to her face.

 _I’m trying to keep that in mind,_ she said once in reply. It sticks in his head: _I’m trying._

He’s trying, too. To be a grounding presence at her side, a fixed point she can always return to. Whatever she needs—a comrade in arms, a friend, a safe harbor. He’s hers.

He wishes she’d stay through the night. But it has to be enough that though she runs from him, she still comes back.


	3. A Conversation Mid-Sex - Jyn (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/162258116384/casually-leaves-this-heremore-cassian-has) and I have every intention of eventually expanding this into a fic in [cast some light](http://archiveofourown.org/series/687465). It might take some time, though. I have a Writing List! XD
> 
>  **ETA** : this has now been expanded into a full fic [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12179187)!

Cassian has two fingers rocking inside Jyn while his thumb runs light circles over her clit when she catches his wrist and gasps against his throat, “Wait, wait, stop—I had _plans_.”

His fingers twitch inside her, but otherwise he goes very still and pliant, letting her pin his other hand to the bed.  “Plans?” he asks, studying her face with a nervous glint in his eyes when she leans away from him to catch her breath.

Sparks rush through Jyn when she shifts to a more upright position and his thumb presses against the side of her clit.  “Fuck,” she hisses, tightening her grip on his wrist, torn between climbing off him entirely and having his hand stay right where it is.  He’s being good, he’s not moving, waiting for her, but—“I wanted to suck your cock,” she manages, letting go of his wrist to reach down and take said cock in hand.  She wants to sound scolding, but she can’t manage it, her voice breaking into a high, breathy whine when he shudders beneath her and his thumb grazes her clit again, his thick fingers pressing a little deeper inside her.  “You—you distracted me.”

Cassian laughs, the anxious frown that had furrowed his brow fading away.  “Whatever you want, Jyn.”  She twists her wrist, gripping him just a shade too light, and he squeezes his eyes shut for a second, panting.  “I wanted to feel you, though,” he manages after a moment, rubbing his fingers inside her in time with the movement of her hand—except she was teasing, and he is _not_ , clear intent in his touch though he pauses to let her think.  “Whatever you want,” he repeats, and she moans in response.

“Force, Cassian, you feel good, but you’re cheating,” she says, letting go of his cock and pressing her fingers over his where he slides into her slit, her slick warm and wet, and it’s easy, so easy to fuck herself against his hand and to settle back down onto him, let him wrap his other arm around her.

He presses his mouth into her hair and laughs again, the sound soft and low.  “You okay?” he asks, a check in.

“Yeah,” she breathes, rolling her hips, impatient now.  “Yeah, please… but one of these days—” She kisses his chest then the base of his throat, digs her teeth in just a little.  “I want to tie you down so I can do what I want without distractions first.”

The desperate sound Cassian makes when that sinks in is very, very gratifying.


	4. Tumblr Sentence Prompt Roundup - Jyn & Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was stalling on my WIPs so last night I asked for one sentence prompts over at my tumblr. Here are the drabbles that came out of it. 
> 
> I am still taking prompts if you want to send me more, but since these ones together make up at least 1k, I figured I'd round them up here for now. If there are any in particular y'all would like expanded into longer fics, drop me a line and I'll see what I can do!
> 
> Links to the original tumblr posts will be with the prompts, but can also be found under my [rough drafts](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/tagged/rough-drafts) tag.

**[I missed you.](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163578636504/jyncassian-i-missed-you) **

Jyn rests her forehead against the ridges of Cassian’s spine and makes herself say it again a little louder so he knows, so it stops feeling like a secret that’s been locked in her chest: “I missed you.”

He shifts beneath her hands like he’s about to roll over in bed to face her, so she presses her body closer, curls her arm tighter around him, and shakes her head. If she looks him in the eye, it’ll be too much. She’s already on the knife’s edge of shaking apart, clinging to him, knowing he can feel the desperate need running through her.

He carefully takes the hand she pressed against his chest and pulls it up to his mouth so he can kiss her palm. “I thought of you every day.” The rise and fall of his breath is noticeably unsteady before he leans back against her and settles. “Every day, Jyn.”

He’s a liar by trade, but she believes him.

 

-

 

**[Jyn really didn't see the need to send her son into a war; they'd fought so there wouldn't be the need to.](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163581330664/jyn-really-didnt-see-the-need-to-send-her-son) **

“I don’t want you to go,” she told him, but he looked at her with Cassian’s dark eyes and she knew it was futile. Lyr smiled grimly and all Jyn could think in that moment, the words a fragmented echo, was _everything I did, I did for—_

“I won’t run from this, Mom,” Lyr said, shouldering his bag, and staring at her, already the picture of a resolute soldier. “I have to go.”

She threw her arms around him and clutched him close, curling her fingers tight in his jacket. She felt him rest his chin on the top of her head and had to squeeze her eyes shut against the burn of tears. When had he gotten so tall? When had he grown so old? She pulled back and cupped his face between her palms, trying to pick up the pieces of her broken heart.

Somehow, she pulled a smile to her face. “Your father would be proud of you.”

 

-

 

**[I always knew it wasn't the same for you.](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163603429464/sentence-prompt-i-always-knew-it-wasnt-the-same) **

Cassian’s heart is racing when he wakes, sweat sticking cold and uncomfortable along his skin. His breath is harsh in the darkness, and he sucks in air, holds it in his chest until his lungs scream, and then he lets it go. Each inhale is jagged glass tossed in ocean waves. He holds himself very still and lets the tide rush through, smoothing the rough edges out.

Jyn doesn’t stir beside him, but he knows she’s awake, the rigid lines of her body betraying how alert she is. But she doesn’t move, doesn’t reach out across the sliver of space between them in bed.

He can’t let her touch him when he’s like this. He has to find his way back on his own. They’ve learned they’re different in this.

Cassian clenches his hands in the sheets and stares up at the ceiling, counting out his breaths until he feels steady again. Jyn carefully slides her hand close to his, but doesn’t make contact. She’s learned he’ll reach out when he’s ready, when it’s low tide, calm again along the shore.

“Sorry I woke you,” he says finally, voice hoarse, scraped out of his throat.

“You didn’t,” she says, the words shaky in a way he recognizes. She’s coming down from a nightmare too.

 _What a pair are we,_ he thinks, taking stock of himself to see if he can bear to hold her the way she needs without feeling like his touch is poison. He swallows hard, shuddering. “I need another minute.”

“I know,” Jyn says, her voice muffled. It sounds like she’s pressing her face into the pillows, but he can’t turn his head to look yet. “It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m with you.”

Cassian counts out another breath and then takes her hand in his, making his way back to her.

 

-

 

**["Are you shivering?"](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163607655979/if-youre-will-taking-sentence-prompts-how-about) **

“No, I’m not,” Jyn says, but her teeth chatter audibly and she curls a little deeper into the nest of blankets they’ve made in their bed.

Cassian huffs a laugh and sneaks his hands through the tangles to find the curve of her waist. She jolts when he skims his fingers over bare skin, making a tiny squeak that he has him trembling with suppressed laughter.

“Your hands are cold,” she complains, but lets him tug her over and cradle her back against his chest.

“The rest of me isn’t,” he says slyly, and it wins him a snicker and her taking his hand to rub warmth back into it. Once she’s satisfied with the temperature of his fingers, she slides his palm beneath her shirt and wriggles back against him. He presses an open-mouthed kiss to her shoulder, hiding his smile against her skin when she shivers again.

“Still cold?” he teases, spreading his fingers out so he can run his thumb up along the underside of her breast.

“Yeah,” she says, tilting her head back as he starts trailing kisses along her throat. “But you’ll warm me, won’t you?”

 

-

 

**["Hand over the sweets and no one gets hurt."](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163609466234/sentence-prompt-hand-over-the-sweets-and-no-one) **

Cassian drops her jacket back onto the desk, but keeps the little bag of sweets he nicked from her pocket. “I don’t know,” he says, his mouth curving into a smile, a challenge in his gaze. “These look pretty good. I might have to hold them for ransom.”

“Ransom?” Jyn demands, stepping closer to him and narrowing her eyes, but there’s a smile twitching at the corners of her lips, so Cassian doesn’t relent, even as she crowds him.

“Yes,” he says, holding the bag protectively against his chest. They both know Jyn could easily find a way to take it from him even if he took a cheap shot and held it above her height. “You’ll have to kiss me to get them back, of course.”

A grin spreads across Jyn’s face like sunlight. “Oh, of course.” She grabs his collar and comes up on her toes, but instead of pressing a kiss to his mouth, she nudges up to the space just beneath his jaw and kisses him there, all warm breath and a hint of teeth.

The bag of candy slips out of his grasp, but Jyn catches it and tosses it away before she presses him down onto the desk.


	5. Tumblr Sentence Prompt, "I can't" - Cassian (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same notes as last chapter! This one is being posted on its own because a) it's really NSFW, and b) my life offline is kicking into high gear so I'm not sure I'll have time to post more for a few days. 
> 
> [Feel free to send more prompts](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/ask) or to request things you want expanded!
> 
> [Here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163737707174/jyn-tells-cassian-i-cant) is the original post on my tumblr!

“I can’t,” Jyn pants, hips rolling and hands clenching rhythmically in the sheets. Cassian curls his tongue very carefully along her oversensitive clit and her voice breaks into a high, sharp cry before she says it again, over and over, “I can’t, I can’t, I _can’t…_ ”

Cassian trails his mouth feather-light along her cunt before he kisses the join of her groin and thigh. “I think you can,” he says, still rubbing his fingertips inside her. She’s already come tonight, but he still wants this, wants the clench of her around his fingers, the warm taste of her in his mouth. He doesn’t think he’ll ever stop wanting her like this. “I want to try for at least one more.”

“At _least_?” Jyn looks down at him between her legs, incredulous, but there’s a faint smile curving her lips and when she sifts a hand through his hair, she doesn’t pull him away from her.

Cassian meets Jyn’s gaze steadily and adjusts the fall of her legs over his shoulders. He keeps rocking two fingers inside her, gentle and slow. He wants to lick the sweat glistening on her skin, press his mouth over the heat of that pink blush blooming across her chest, but he cups the curve of her hip and kisses the dark curls between her legs instead. He feels greedy, watching how she arches her back and shudders in pleasure because of him, his hands, his mouth. “Does this still feel good?”

Jyn squeezes her eyes shut and sucks in a ragged breath, starting to tremble again. “Yeah, Force, yeah…”

He ducks his head and laps at where his fingers disappear into her slit. He just means to taste her briefly, tease her a little, but she clenches her hand in his hair and holds him down, making a sound he wants to bottle and keep forever.

Better still is how her voice breaks again around his name: “Cassian, _Cassian,_ please…” Her hand slides to the side of his face and he turns his head to press a kiss to her palm.

“Do you want me to keep going? I want to try to make you come again.” He thinks he knows her answer, but he forces himself to be still, trying to give her a breather to decide.

Jyn digs her heels into his back and moans, “Yes, yes, please— _please…_ ”

 _Again,_ Cassian thinks, giving her what she asks him so sweetly for. Again and again and again.


	6. The Lucky Ship Cat - Bodhi (Gen)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a gen ficlet that was originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/163062039899/this-is-a-belated-birthday-bit-of-fluff-for) for [eisoj5's](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Eisoj5/pseuds/Eisoj5) birthday. It's not _technically_ Rebelcaptain, but it's too small for me to feel right about posting on its own and I would like it to have a place here on AO3.
> 
> There are clear shout-outs here for eisoj5's incredible Bodhi-centric fic [I guess I'll know when I get there](http://archiveofourown.org/works/8910982/chapters/20414107) with reference to Bodhi having a ship of his own, him naming things, and him earning the rank of captain. Also Luke/Bodhi is a Thing. :D If you're not reading that fic already, go read that!!! <3
> 
> For actual canonical evidence that Jyn is a cat person, watch the [Forces of Destiny short](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xc0O1yP9kNo) if you haven't already! And like I said on tumblr, I blame Scott Lynch and his book _Red Seas Under Red Skies_ for the idea of cats being good luck on ships.

There is something down inside Bodhi’s ship, little clawed feet scampering audibly across the floor. Bodhi would be more worried if he didn’t hear Jyn’s voice down in the hold too, a little annoyed, but mostly soothing: “Hey, no, hey, it’s all right, it’s just the door—”

“Jyn?” Bodhi calls out, but instead of hearing Jyn respond, he hears—“Is that a cat?” Sure enough, another meow rings out as he ducks his head down into the relatively empty cargo hold where Jyn is. She’s sitting down next to a couple of crates, reaching behind them and wedging her arm in the gap by the wall. Off to the side, Bodhi sees a small metal cage, the door hanging open.

“Hi,” Jyn says, looking up at Bodhi with a bright little grin. “We have a guest for this trip.”

“A guest?” Bodhi asks over another curious sounding _mrow?_ From the opposite side of the crates, Bodhi spots a purple and yellow striped, fluffy tail flicking.

Jyn glances back behind the crate, and Bodhi doesn’t think he has ever seen her look so delighted in all the time he’s known her. “Draven gave her to us for the next mission.”

Bodhi nearly chokes on his shock. _“Draven_ gave us a ship cat?” He climbs down the ladder to join Jyn, startling a little when the tail disappears and the crate rattles.

“It’s all right, sweetheart, it’s just Bodhi,” Jyn coos. “He’s our nice captain.” Her gaze flicks to Bodhi slyly as she says his new rank; Bodhi can feel his cheeks heat up with a blush.

He sits down in the middle of the small room instead of going over to the crates, stifling his curiosity so that he doesn’t scare the little animal. Before he can ask any of the questions swirling in his brain, he hears footsteps above them, regular boots and the heavier stomp of Kaytoo—sure enough, he hears Cassian a moment later.

“Jyn? Bodhi?”

_Mrow? Mrow??_

“Down here,” Bodhi calls up. “With the cat?”

“Oh good,” Cassian says, and then he’s peering down at them, too, his face creased with faint concern, but mostly amusement. “How is our good luck charm?”

“Our _what?_ You knew about this?” Bodhi asks, incredulous, ignoring Jyn when she makes a soft, surprised sound and murmurs something to the cat.

Kay’s voice drifts over. “The briefing said that in the planet we are going to, it is considered greviously bad luck to have a ship without a cat. Did you not read the briefing?”

Bodhi’s face gets hotter when he thinks about how Luke had distracted him from his datapad earlier. “Must have missed that part.”

“Hello, little darling,” Jyn says, a thankful distraction as she draws back out from behind the crate. “Bodhi, can you hand me that bag over there?”

Bodhi spots said bag by the little cage and reaches over to slide it in Jyn’s direction. Jyn opens it and shakes the contents out into her palm. Very cautiously, the fluffy creature creeps out toward the treats Jyn holds out in offering. It flicks one of its long ears in Bodhi’s direction as if to say that it knows he’s there, but its huge, luminous eyes are trained on Jyn.

“She got a little scared, I think,” Jyn says conversationally as the cat sniffs at her hand. She puts the treats on the floor and then carefully touches the cat’s neck. “We hid for a little bit, but now we know we’re safe, don’t we?” The cat munches on the treats and her rumbling purr fills up the room. Jyn scratches lightly through her fur. “Come meet her, Bodhi.”

Bodhi cautiously scoots over and holds out his hand. The cat looks up from the treats and sniffs at his fingertips for a second before she rubs her face against his skin. Her fur is a lot softer than he expected. “Does she have a name?”

“Draven didn’t say,” Jyn says with a laugh. “Your ship, your lucky cat—why don’t you name her?”

Bodhi runs a hand along the cat’s spine, his face curving into an irrepressible smile. “Yeah, I’ll think of something.”


	7. Cast Some Light (Part 1) Alternate POV - Jyn (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm trying to get back into writing so a [no excuses writer meme](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165054371909/no-excuses-writing-meme-askbox-version) appeared on my tumblr dashboard and I received some requests for alternate POV ficlets! I'm still working on filling those, but since these are all from the same fic, I figured I'd post them here in one chapter.
> 
> These are all moments from [cast some light & you'll be all right](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9856910), part one of that ['verse](https://archiveofourown.org/series/687465). These ficlets will make way more sense if you read that fic first! XD 
> 
> The original tumblr posts are linked in each header, but as before, you can also find them in my [rough drafts](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/tagged/rough-drafts) tag.

**[the first time](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165060987464/pov-for-the-writing-prompt-pretty-please) **

Jyn doesn’t plan on jumping Cassian after that mission, it’s just that— she cracks some wry joke as they’re walking away from the ship and his whole face lights up with a laugh, and she looks at him and suddenly thinks, _yes._ It’s the shock of surprise, it’s a gorgeous victory, it’s a rush of want so fierce that it nearly knocks her clean over. She takes his hand for balance just as much as the need to touch him, to get her hands all over him and make him _shout._

There isn’t a thought in her head when she pins him against the cargo containers except _yes, more—_ and the sounds he makes when he bucks beneath her, how he throws his head back and presses into the scrape of her teeth, _stars,_ the barely bitten back moans that fall from his mouth— something in her feels wild with joy, knowing that she’s the reason he is so wrecked with pleasure so fast.

“Jyn, wait, I’m—” he gasps, clutching her hips, and she can’t help but grin as she kisses him and kisses him. _I did that,_ she thinks when he spills over in her fist, shuddering and making tiny, helpless sounds against her mouth.

The only other time she’s kissed him has been when she thought they were both dying. This is better, so much better. She kisses him while he comes and thinks, _yes, here, now, we’re alive._

 

-

 

 **[kitchen kissing](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165155226644/for-the-fic-favorites-meme-the-scene-in-cast-some)**

Jyn is on the right side of tipsy after just one ale, though she thinks maybe it’s not just the alcohol that is making her feel warm and bright—maybe it’s the company she’s keeping, the smiles on everyone’s faces, the laughter that fills up the room. There’s a sense of relief in the air, an overall release of tension because there’s nothing on anyone’s agenda tomorrow, no drills or mission briefings, just the promise of rest for a little while.

Cassian is over in the kitchenette making something that smells amazing while everyone else crowds around a game of sabacc. Jyn lost early with a truly dismal hand, but she doesn’t even mind because she gets to sit and relax and laugh the hardest she has ever laughed in her entire life as Bodhi wipes the floor with everyone else with a sheepish little grin on his face. He keeps ducking his head and looking at Luke Skywalker from beneath his eyelashes—Luke is trying so hard to pull some innocent farmboy act, but a boyish smile flashes across his face as it becomes clear that he’s Bodhi’s only competition after a few hands.

Jyn suspects they’re both cheating, but she hasn’t been able to catch them at it, far too entertained by all the flirting. It’s a delight to see Bodhi laughing, a blush darkening his cheeks. He keeps glancing at Luke’s mouth, and Jyn really hopes he works up the nerve to kiss Luke before the night ends.

It’s sweet. There’s a tender place behind her ribs that feels laid bare. She doesn’t know what to call it, thinks maybe she should curl herself around it and keep the vulnerability hidden—but not tonight. _You’re safe here,_ she thinks to herself, and that thought sounds like—

“I’m getting another drink,” she declares to the room at large, feeling her own face flush suddenly. Bodhi looks up from his cards and the look on his face turns wry and knowing. Jyn pulls a face at him and leaves before he can comment or call her out.

The drinks are in the kitchen—as is Cassian. Cassian with his back to her, humming snatches of a song as he stirs something spicy on the stove. Watching him, she forgets about her excuse of getting another ale.

Cassian covers the pot on the stove and adjusts the heat before he turns to her, and—it hits her like it always does, like an electric shot, sharp and startling, how beautiful he is. Especially when his lips tilt upward in a smile, so small and soft. For a moment, she lets herself believe that smile is a private thing, just for her.

She veers closer to him without a thought, caught in his orbit like always, helpless against the pull of his presence. The clink of her empty bottle on the counter sounds loud to her ears, but Cassian keeps his gaze on her.

“Hi,” he says and it’s unfair, it really is unfair, the way his eyes crinkle at the corners, the way he ducks his head a fraction and bites his bottom lip. The sleeves of his shirt are rolled up to his elbows and he busies himself with wiping his hands off with a dishtowel. “Dinner should be ready in—” he begins, but she’s already taking advantage of his distraction, darting in and tugging him down by his collar so she can press her mouth to his.

His lips are soft, surprise gentling the curve of his smile, and she comes up onto her toes automatically just to be a little closer to him. 

For a split second, she thinks of Scarif, of the turbolift and how she’d wanted to lose herself in the desperate press of his broken body against hers. She thinks about that first kiss only because of the contrast here. There’s nothing fast or pained now, only a slow, rolling heat—no blood or tears or jagged edges, only the warmth of him and how she fits against him, like this is where she belongs. She closes her eyes and lets herself revel in it.

A sudden burst of laughter from the other room startles her, shattering the moment. She jerks away, but Cassian doesn’t let her go far, a small noise of protest all the warning she gets before his hands frame her face and he pulls her back in.

She shivers in the heat, falling into him again. _You’re safe here,_ she hears again, and hopes.

 

-

 

 **[the breath](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165065075514/pov-cast-some-light-verse-please-and-thanks)**

As soon as Cassian finally, _finally_ takes Jyn’s pants off, he just… stops. She hears his breath catch and everything goes very still. His hands rest on her spread thighs, and he stares down at her with this look in his eyes that makes Jyn shiver all over, sparks scattered across her bare skin. 

His gaze on her is so soft. He’s taking her in, and the strangest thing is that there’s no fear in her at the thought, no animal recoil, just stillness and warmth. And an ache in her chest where her heart beats because she wants this. She wants him.

No one has ever looked at her the way he is now.

“What are you staring at,” she asks, and her voice trembles. _Touch me,_ she wants to say, _touch me._ It’s caught in her throat because it’s so vulnerable, new born and fragile. The wanting. 

“You’re beautiful, Jyn,” Cassian says, hushed, reverent. “You’re so very beautiful.”

Jyn looks back at him and sees no trace of a lie, no hidden knives. There’s only gentleness in him, and an open longing that shakes her to the core.

 _I trust you,_ she thinks. “Come here,” she says instead, and rises up to meet him, giving herself over, letting him in.

 

-

 

**  
[either way](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/166927980084/anghraine-asked-awhile-ago-for-a-pov-prompt-from)  
**

“You good?” Cassian asks Jyn, something careful in the question, one of his hands resting along her spine, fingers tracing the knobs of her vertebrae. She can’t help but think about how he’d had those fingers curled inside her and it had felt good, he had felt so good. He still does, all pressed up against her, the hard line of his cock against her thigh.

He doesn’t rock into her, and his voice is soothing in her ear, no trace of impatience. Not even a hint of demands.

Later, she’ll wonder why she isn’t afraid, why it doesn’t occur to her then that he could nudge her legs apart and shove his cock inside her without asking. Another person might’ve. But he didn’t, he doesn’t, he—

—catches her wrist when she traces the line of dark hair that disappears into his pants. He makes it clear that she has a choice, that he doesn’t mind if he comes tonight or not. “Either way,” he tells her, and honesty rings out clear in the words.

It makes all the difference in the world. The honesty. The choice.

“Either way,” she echoes him with a helpless smile that makes her cheeks ache a little. Everything feels warm and bright and _safe_ here with him. She wants him, wants the gentleness in his voice and his touch. She wants more, wants to give the same back to him.

 _Together now,_ she thinks as she wraps her hand around him and he slides his fingers back inside her. _Together._

It’s unfamiliar, but she isn’t afraid.


	8. Cast Some Light (Parts 2 & 3) Alternate POV - Cassian & Jyn (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Same notes as last chapter, these are alternate POVs from the [cast some light](https://archiveofourown.org/series/687465) 'verse. The original posts are on tumblr for the [no excuses writer meme](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165054371909/no-excuses-writing-meme-askbox-version).
> 
> The first moment is from [waiting to step forward](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10441419), and the second is from [I wanna hurry home to you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888026).

**[can I have you](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165196548749/for-the-writing-meme-pov) **

Jyn doesn’t cover up the marks Cassian left on her throat. There is plenty of time for her to go back to their quarters after breakfast to grab her scarf, and Cassian knows _she_ knows they’re there, dark red against her pale skin. She hadn’t seemed angry or embarrassed when Kay tactlessly pointed them out, but that had been among their friends, not everyone else on base.

Still, she keeps her hair up in her customary bun and she doesn’t wear a scarf. Cassian sees how she rolls her shoulders back and walks tall down the hallways, how she brushes her fingertips absently along her neck as she looks over a datapad, how a smile lingers on her lips throughout the day.

He—well. He can’t help but stay close to her, drawn in by the sight of her proudly displaying visible evidence that he had his mouth on her. He’s used to a few side glances aimed his way when he’s carried the imprints of Jyn’s teeth just above his collar. It’s different seeing his marks on Jyn.

Another man might feel possessive, even smug. But it’s not ownership he feels, it’s—he feels _floored_ by the reminder that she shook apart in his arms. He wants to hold her again, to kiss her all over and taste the salt-sweat on her skin, the warm heat of her cunt. He wants to hear her moan and tell him, _yes._

He wants to ask her, _can I have you, can we be alone,_ but every time he glances over at her, he feels wide-eyed and clumsy, stunned silent by the memory of how she clung to him and came. It’s a good thing they don’t have a mission to prep for because he’s tempted to drop everything and tumble her back into bed.

To his delight, she asks for him. She’s the one to make their excuses and bring him back to their quarters. “I want you,” she tells him, voice trembling a little, but gaze steady. Certain. “Please.”

 _You have me,_ he thinks when he gets down on his knees.

 

-

 

**[teasing](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165209755959/pov-jyn-i-wanna-hurry-home-to-you) **

Jyn shifts her weight above Cassian, shivering as he runs his hands all along her back and then down to cup her ass. He looks at her from between her thighs with those beautiful dark eyes of his, his mouth open and lips soft, bitten red. He tilts his chin up and she stifles a whimper as his breath rushes out against her cunt. He doesn’t push or pull her to him, just lets the tip of his tongue trace over her folds, the barest touch. She’s so fucking wet and wound tight, she wants little more than to rock herself down and sink onto his tongue, make a mess of his face—but there’s something fascinating about watching him choose to strain to reach her. When she twitches away from him, he tips his head back against the pillows and groans. The way he says her name fills her up with a wild kind of joy.

“I’m sorry, did you want something?” she teases, letting him try again to get the taste of her he seems to want so desperately. His eyes drop closed, heavy-lidded, as he manages one, long stroke of his tongue, gathering up her slick before she moves away again.

But he fights dirty, too, trailing warm, wet kisses along her thigh, his voice pitched low and pleading. “Jyn,” he murmurs, nuzzling into the red marks he’d sucked into her skin. “I want you. Come on, Jyn, please...”

She already wasn’t going to be able to keep up the game for long, not with the heat in her belly, the restless need that’s been building for hours. Cassian trembles with pent-up desire beneath her, dragging his mouth up to her groin, begging for her so beautifully that she folds. She folds so easy, knotting her fingers in his hair and tugging him right where she wants him. Right where they both need.


	9. Tumblr Sentence Prompts Roundup - Jyn & Cassian (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Very belated one sentence prompt responses! As before, links to the original tumblr posts will be with the prompts, but can also be found under my [rough drafts](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/tagged/rough-drafts) tag.
> 
> Only the first one is slightly NSFW, but I've got this chapter marked regardless.

**[“Go to sleep, you daft idiot.”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/164542004134/go-to-sleep-you-daft-idiot) **

“It’s morning where I was on Coruscant,” Cassian says lightly, but doesn’t do anything other than rumble a laugh when Jyn rolls over and pins him down onto the bed with her body.

“It’s night _here_ ,” she grumbles, hiding her face in his neck and smiling when her breath ghosting over his skin makes him shiver. She presses her lips to where his pulse beats in his throat and wraps her arms around him, clinging– he’s warm and alive and _home_. _Don’t go,_ she thinks, sinking her weight into him and mouthing lazily up to his jawline and the spot beneath his ear.

“You’re doing the opposite of putting me to sleep,” Cassian says, rocking up against the thigh she’s wedged between his legs. There’s a heat growing in her too, slow and possessive.

She slides her hand down his body to rest low on his stomach, her fingertips dipping beneath the waistband of his sleep pants. “We can sleep after. Stay.” She slides her hand lower, cups him with her palm, and he makes that small, desperate sound she’s thought about so often here, alone in their bed. It’s so much better hearing it in person. “Stay here with me.”

 

-

 

**[“There’s no accounting for taste.”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165278251094/for-your-prompts-theres-no-accounting-for) **

Jyn sinks her teeth into her bottom lip to stop herself from laughing at the look on Leia’s face as she takes a swig from the bottle being passed around the table. To her credit, Leia doesn’t come up coughing or shuddering, she just sets the bottle down heavily in front of her and levels an incredulous look at Jyn.

“Where the hell did you get this jet fuel? If you had enough of it, it could actually make the Falcon look clean.”

“Hey!” Han barks, wounded, and Jyn does laugh then, swiping the bottle and taking a drink. It is horrible stuff, bottom shelf liquor so low you should find it in a proverbial hole in the ground. But it burns down her throat and simmers in her gut, a familiar glow inside her from reckless Partisan nights after successful missions, scraps of camaraderie snatched from soldiers who never knew her full name.

Cassian’s fingers linger on hers as he takes the alcohol from her and brings it to his lips. The alcohol must have gone straight to her head because Jyn finds herself mesmerized by the movement of his throat as he swallows, struck dumb when his tongue swipes across his mouth to chase the last drop of it.

“It’s not the worst I’ve had,” he says, passing it off to Bodhi and meeting Jyn’s gaze with a wry smirk that has her torn between kissing him and asking for stories. She wants to know him just as much as she wants to be known.

“Oh yeah?” Luke pipes up from where he’s curled into Bodhi’s side, clearly as eager for more information as Jyn is. “What is the worst you’ve had?”

The corners of Cassian’s eyes crinkle with amusement and his hand settles on Jyn’s thigh beneath the table as he begins his tale.

 

-

 

**[“I never expected any of this.”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165315277719/sentence-prompt-if-you-are-still-doing-them-i) **

Cassian eases himself down to sit next to Jyn and follows her gaze out to the crowd of people cheering and dancing around the bonfires of Endor. Everything smells like woodsmoke and forest green, which is a marked improvement on blood and blaster discharge. Cassian aches down to the metal holding his bones in place and tries not to lean too heavily against Jyn’s shoulder. He glances over at her and sees lines of exhaustion in her that must mirror his own. There’s a bruise blooming above her right eye, and he reaches up without thinking to skim his fingertips along the darkening edge.

Jyn’s eyes flutter closed, but there’s the barest of smiles at the corners of her mouth. “It’s nothing, Cassian. I got lucky today.”

“We all did,” Cassian says, the words heavy in his mouth. It’s still hitting him like stones thrown down a gulley, rattling in empty spaces, leaving strange echoes. “They’re saying this is the beginning of the end of the war.”

Jyn exhales a sound that might be a laugh before she takes his hand and squeezes tightly. “Do you believe it?”

Cassian looks back at the revelry and watches Leia pull Luke—Luke who dragged Darth Vader’s corpse to a funeral pyre—over to Bodhi who looks overwhelmed but overjoyed. Luke presses a kiss to Bodhi’s lips and both of them look shaken, as if they’ve reached steady ground again but still expect to fall through at any minute. Cassian knows the feeling.

“I don’t know,” he admits finally, pulling Jyn’s hand up to his lips so he can kiss her bruised knuckles. “I never expected to get this far.”

“Me neither,” Jyn says, her voice ash soft. “But I’m glad we made it.”

Cassian lets her hand slip out of his grasp only so he can wrap his arm around her and tug her close. He tucks her head beneath his chin and closes his eyes, breathing in deep. “Me too.”


	10. Cast Some Light (Part 3) Alternate POV - Cassian & Jyn (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Rover asked me for two alternate POV moments from [I wanna hurry home to you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10888026) per the [no excuses writer meme](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165054371909/no-excuses-writing-meme-askbox-version). :D

**[“I couldn’t tell.”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165280029019/rover-kelevra-asked-me-re-i-wanna-hurry-home-to)**

Cassian fumbles though getting out of his clothes because he gets distracted by how Jyn strips her shirt off and messes up her hair, strands of it falling out of her customary bun as pins tumble to the floor. Her belt is undone, her pants hanging low on her hips because she forgot to take her boots off first. Stars, he wants his hands on her already, wants to press his mouth to the jagged knife wound scar above her waistband, wants to follow the line of it down. He tries to pull his mind back to the conversation and task at hand, instead of the rush of blood gone south. The meeting, yes. “I considered leaving early.”

“I couldn’t tell,” Jyn tells him, voice dry as dust and a frown on her face as she tugs her boots off and tosses them aside. “You had your Mysterious Spy face on.”

Oh. Cassian feels the smile on his face fall and is glad Jyn’s attention is elsewhere. _Oh._ He watches her and wonders, surely, _surely_ she must know that he wasn’t indifferent, that he isn’t cold to her, not now, not ever. He’s been accused before of being unfeeling, of being as unfamiliar with human emotion as a droid, but he isn’t—he doesn’t— _you_ must _know,_ he wants to say to Jyn here and now, _you must know how I feel about you, surely…_

He can’t say it, well-honed instincts screaming that she might run if he isn’t careful. He can’t say it yet. But he can show her.

 

-

 

**[“I made a mess of you.”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165994772554/rover-kelevra-asked-for-jyns-pov-when-she) **

“You good?” Cassian asks Jyn, his arms around her, fingertips tracing idle patterns on her back— _star lines,_ she thinks and wants to laugh, giddy and overwhelmed by the rush of her release. Of course she’s good— _he’s_ good. She can’t even string the words together to tell him, sparks still dancing along her skin everywhere he touches her. She wants to stay here in his arms forever, soaking up the warmth of him while she catches her breath. She’s not done with him yet. Maybe she never will be.

She buries her face into the curve where his neck meets his shoulder, hiding her smile against his skin. His fingers skitter over the knobs of her spine, light shivery touches that have her arching into him, hopeful for more. She wants him to splay the palm of his hand heavy against her shoulder blade— _Force,_ she wants his grip on her to go desperate again, clinging as he rises up beneath her, gasping in her ear. She’s not done, not by a long shot.

She rests a hand low on his stomach, pleased when he jumps and his breath catches audibly in his throat. His fingers press hard into her back, and she purrs with satisfaction.

“Jyn, wait, I already—” Cassian starts, voice strained, but she’s already slid her hand into his underwear. He moans when she finds him spent, come sticky and wet all over his softening cock. The discovery has her flushing all over, curling closer to him and feeling heat creeping up his throat beneath her lips.

He’s already come and his hands had been on her the whole time—he’d come completely untouched. It’s _exhilarating,_ that realization. She trails her fingers along his length and the head of his cock, ghosting over his slit, just to feel, just to see—and his whole body jerks into her touch, more come spilling from him as he whines, a gorgeous, almost pained sound that sears inside her, burning in her blood.

“I made a mess of you,” she murmurs in Cassian’s ear, the fire in her so warm and sweet as she holds him and he settles back down.

“You always do,” he tells her, and she has to kiss him then in answer, her heart trembling in her mouth.


	11. Take a Break - Cassian (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'M CHEATING, this is 1k but unpolished and unfinished and I'm not sure if/when I'll continue it, so. Here we are. XD
> 
> Rover mentioned desk sex to me and got the chair make outs before the sex instead. Originally posted in pieces [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/166447146079/brynnmclean-dont-look-at-me-blame) and [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/166449897149/actually-limiting-myself-to-tumblr-posts-instead) on tumblr.

Cassian slumps back in his seat and scrubs a hand over his face, pushing against the steady ache behind his eyes. He’s been looking over these reports for a few hours and all the words are beginning to blur together.

“Headache?” Jyn asks from where she’s sprawled out on their bunk, reading through her own paperwork, but her gaze on him is considerably more alert than how he feels at the moment.

“Yeah,” he admits, pushing back against the edge of the desk to distance himself from the pile of work. He rolls his neck and shoulders, trying to dispel some of the tension in his body. “I’m probably due for a break.”

Jyn hums contemplatively, shuffling flimsi sheets and then sitting up, the mattress protesting as she swings her legs off the side of the bed. Cassian can’t help but wince at the sound.

Jyn’s socked feet are quiet on the floor as she crosses over to him and touches his shoulder, slides her palm up to curve around the nape of his neck. He drops his head forward, a groan rumbling in his chest as she starts kneading there. She presses against the knots in his shoulders, too, and rakes her fingers up into his hair.

“Feels good,” he tells her, eyes slipping closed, heavy-lidded.

Jyn kisses his shoulder and then nuzzles into his throat, her breath hot against his skin. “Good. I’m due for a break, too.”

Cassian tips his head up and back, torn between finding her mouth and kissing her properly or going pliant beneath her, letting her have his throat or whatever other parts of his body she wants. He likes the thought of giving himself up to her for a little while, losing himself in her touch.

Jyn appears to be on the same wavelength. She curls her fingers in his hair and tugs just a little, just enough to get him to open his eyes and look at her. She’s smiling, so lovely and beautiful that he forgets himself and pulls against her hold with his desire to kiss her.

“Hey,” she says, tightening her grip, but also darting in and kissing him lightly on the mouth. “Can I have you?”

Cassian wants to kiss her again, but not more than he wants to surrender to the heat in her eyes. “Yes,” he breathes. “How do you want me?”

Jyn’s smile goes sharp, though her grip on him loosens. “Stay in the chair,” she says, coming around and climbing into his lap. His hands automatically cup her hips, steadying her. She frames his face between her hands for a moment, studying him. He breathes deeply, forcing himself to be still for her, waiting.

“Where’s your headache?” Jyn asks finally. “I’ll start there.”

The last part doesn’t make sense to Cassian, but it doesn’t have to. “Behind my eyes.”

Jyn nods. “Close them.” Once he has, she carefully kisses his eyelids, then his eyebrows, soft brushes of her mouth, feather-light along the frown that’s felt etched into his forehead.

He slides his hands to the small of her back and she leans back. “Cassian.”

Cassian opens his eyes, the faint reproach in Jyn’s voice sinking into him and sending a cold whisper of anxiety down his spine. But she’s still smiling, a soothing warmth in her expression.

“I’d like to kiss you without distractions,” Jyn tells him, emphasizing the final word carefully, and a blush flares along his cheeks—he knows what she means. He puts his hands back on her hips and is rewarded with her lips on his. One of her hands travels to cradle the back of his head, the other to splay against his chest. He runs his thumbs along the lines of her hip bones to keep himself there.

She kisses him slow, lazily licking into his mouth, nipping at his bottom lip, swallowing the moan he can’t help but make. “You’re good,” she murmurs, trailing her mouth up to his cheekbones and then she breathes into his ear, “Very good, Cassian. Just let me kiss you. Okay?”

“Yes,” he says, low. He swallows hard and digs his fingers into her a little as a shiver runs through him.

Jyn laughs and rocks her hips, shifting her weight in a way that has him clenching his jaw and sucking in air. She kisses his jawline and the spot beneath his ear. “Relax,” she soothes. “You can make noise if you want. You can move if you want. I just want you to keep your hands on my hips for now.”

“For now?” he echoes, heat sinking in him, his blood traveling south. He considers asking what she’s planning next, but she starts kissing his neck and it seems more important to let her scrape her teeth against that place she likes to mark him.

Cassian can feel Jyn’s mouth curl into a grin as another shiver rolls through him. She grasps his shoulders for some leverage and crowds a little closer to rock into the bulge of his hardening cock in his pants.

He gasps, surprised into stillness, though she told him he could move.

“It’s okay,” Jyn says, her hands tugging at his shirt, pulling the fabric out from his pants so she can find skin. “I want this, just this. You feel good.” She kisses him, open-mouthed, her hands dipping beneath his shirt and stroking up and down his torso as she rubs herself against him in a slow, tortuous rhythm.

He manages to keep his hands on her hips. But he wants to touch her, wants to wrap his arms around her and lift her up so he can carry her over to their bed. “Jyn,” he says, wanting to be good more than anything else. “Please. Tell me what you want?”

Jyn sits back and rests her hands on his stomach. She looks him in the eye, studying his face. It’s an effort not to pull her back in and kiss her bitten-red lips. If she’d grant him the use of his hands, he would take the pins from her bun and sift his fingers through the waves of her hair. He’d sneak his hands beneath her clothes and do his best to make her moan and shake with pleasure.

A blush stains her neck, crawling up to her cheeks, but she smiles at him, still. “You’re thinking too much. I want to get you to stop that.” She slides her hands down to his belt buckle, but pauses. Her tongue darts out to wet her lips. “Can I put my mouth on your cock? I bet that would do it.”

Cassian has to close his eyes and hold his breath to stop himself from making an embarrassing sound. But his cock twitches hard beneath Jyn’s hands and the satisfied purr she makes tells him she knows. She knows.

“Yes,” he said, no breath to the word. She deftly undoes his belt and the button and zipper of his pants, and his voice sharpens as she pulls his cock out— _“Yes.”_


	12. Cold Hands, Warm Heart - Cassian

Cassian runs cold, always has. Growing up on a frozen rock of a world like Fest doesn’t actually help him acclimate to frigid climates—though he’d say in his defense that he jumps from world to world to world, each with its own weather patterns and seasons. It’s hard to get used to anything besides the chill of space travel.

He certainly isn’t used to the warmth of Jyn in his bed.

Jyn is curled up in their bunk on the rattle-trap ship they’re flying on the way back from this mission, a thin sheet twisted around her body and a thicker blanket kicked off so it’s half on the floor. Her back is shoved up against the wall, her hands balled into fists, but her face is smooth and her breath even with sleep. Cassian carefully shrugs out of his jacket and tugs off his boots, trying to be quiet as he undresses and folds his clothes into a pile. 

He clenches his jaw as his bare feet touch the cool floor of their quarters, and he shivers as the recycled air in their room slips through his undershirt. He glances at the space beside Jyn in bed, the area she’s left him even in unconsciousness. He can just slide himself beneath the blankets and curl up next to her, slotting himself into place at her side, sink into the warmth and belonging. 

He hasn’t slept peacefully in days, neither of them have, their mission tense even though it turned out relatively uneventful. His bones feel heavy, stress a hard knot at the base of his spine, a dull thudding behind his eyes. But his toes are like ice, his hands just as much of a lost cause—his palms itch with the desire to skim along the curves of Jyn’s shoulder and hip, but he can picture her frown if he touches her and drags her out of her rest with his cold fingers on her skin.

There’s a chair in their little room, but his back screams in protest at just the sight of it. He curls his toes against the floor and rubs his hands together. “Jyn,” he whispers, then just a shade louder: “Jyn?”

She doesn’t even twitch. Maybe he can just…

He’s easing himself into bed next to her, hardly daring to breathe, when Jyn’s eyes flicker open and she makes an indistinct sound.

 _Damn_. Cassian exhales in a rush, but keeps moving slowly, trying to keep the damage as minimal as possible.

Jyn blinks at him and hums, shifting and stretching out toward him. “Cassian,” she murmurs, voice low and rough and—inviting. He busies himself with pulling the blanket that she’d kicked away up and over both of them, and then he folds his arms tight against his chest to stop himself from reaching for her. She radiates heat like a summer sun; he doesn’t want to bring winter’s chill to her.

Jyn sighs and shuffles closer, a hint of exasperation creeping into her tone. “C’mere. You’re shivering.”

He’d hoped she wouldn’t notice. “I’m fine. I’ll warm up in a minute.”

“You’ll warm up faster with me,” Jyn says, giving him no time or room to protest before she tugs his arms away from his chest and plasters herself against him, a line of heat that makes him shudder and groan with relief.

“Sorry,” he says when one of his hands automatically cups her hip, fingertips against the sliver of skin between her shorts and her undershirt. Jyn squirms and he apologizes again, even though somehow his hand has traveled up to splay along the small of her back.

Jyn nuzzles against his throat, her mouth curving into a sleepy smile against the beat of his heart there. “You’d freeze without me,” she teases, sounding more alert.

“I didn’t mean to wake you,” he says, letting her manhandle him into whatever position she wants. And she’s right—he’s warming quickly beneath her, pressing into her touch.

She laughs, scattering lazy, open-mouthed kisses along his neck. “Can’t say I mind,” she says as she wedges a knee between his legs. He can’t help the gasp that catches in his chest.

Cassian isn’t so cold now. Not at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A small beginning of a thing for [Rover](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoverKelevra/pseuds/RoverKelevra). Not sure when real life will let me finish it, but it's a two chapter idea in the works. :P
> 
> I think I owe [anghraine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anghraine/pseuds/Elizabeth) for the idea of Cassian never being warm (go read their fantastic [totally platonic bed-sharing queer rogue one fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12551012)!), though let me tell you, I Relate as a person who is also Always Cold and, in recent times, is constantly apologizing for having to put my freezing hands on the sweet man playing my love interest in the play I'm in. XD


	13. Sleeping Arrangements - Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/167919542079/a-small-thing-the-first-time-jyn-asks-to-stay)!
> 
> Just FYI since I haven't mentioned this outright over here, but I'm going on somewhat of a fic writing hiatus because of the holidays and I'm in a local production of _A Streetcar Named Desire_ (I'm Blanche and it's A Lot), so profound apologies to anyone who is waiting on prompt fills or more of my 'verses! If I do manage to write fic, it'll probably be small stuff like this. Thanks for bearing with me in the meantime!  <3

The first time Jyn asks to stay overnight in his quarters, Cassian offers her his whole bed.  In his defense, it’s a small bed—he has to fold his knees to keep his feet from falling off the end, which doesn’t help the width of the mattress either.  Neither of them are large people—they could, in theory, squeeze together with maybe, _maybe_ a hairsbreadth of space between them, but the last thing Cassian wants is to crowd Jyn.

“I’m fine with the floor,” he tells her, pulling one of the blankets off the bed.  It’s only half a lie—he’ll be cold and the hard floor won’t do his back any favors, so he doesn’t anticipate getting much rest, but if it will make Jyn feel comfortable and safe enough to sleep, it will be worth it.

She’d stayed at his bedside when he’d been confined to medical, and he couldn’t deny he’d found comfort in having her near.  She’d fallen asleep there sometimes with her head pillowed on his thigh.  The soft sound of her breathing is something he’s missed since she’s been—well.  Apparently _not_ sleeping elsewhere.

The dark circles under Jyn’s eyes almost look like bruises; the light that usually catches like a blaze in the green of her irises is absent.  Cassian watches her sigh with her whole body and scrub a hand over her face, her shoulders slumping.  

“I didn’t come here to kick you out of your bed,” she says, a spark of irritation smothered by weariness.

Cassian doesn’t ask, _what did you come here for_ , because the words feel raw even unvoiced in his mouth, too risky.  He doesn’t know if they would be jarring in the air, a misstep that triggers alarms and sends Jyn running.  “Consider the bed freely given,” he tells her instead, and when she visibly wavers where she stands by the door, he looks her in the eye and carefully adds, “It’s fine, Jyn.”

She grimaces, but bends over to fumble at the laces of her boots.  Cassian thinks the argument is over, but when her boots are off and she shrugs out of her jacket and overshirt, she insists, “I don’t want you to sleep on the floor.”  He automatically glances at her and then quickly turns his attention away as she takes off her pants.  “If you let me have the right side, I think I’ll be fine.”

“Closest to the door?” Cassian says without thinking, heat still searing his cheeks.  He hears the bedsprings squeak as Jyn sits down heavily on the mattress.

“Yeah, is that a problem?”  There’s no challenge in Jyn’s voice.  He looks at her out of the corner of his eyes and she looks tired.  Small.  Her hands tremble as she pulls the pins from her hair.  Whatever he was planning on saying gets caught in his throat as he watches her comb her fingers through the soft fall of her hair.

He doesn’t know what to call the ache of his heart, the pull on his ribs, how his whole body turns to face Jyn like a planet orbiting its sun.  All he knows is that it feels unnatural to struggle against that call to be at her side.

“I prefer the side by the wall,” he says finally as the realization hits him that he’s been silent too long, staring at her.  He sucks in a breath and sweeps the blanket up off the floor, folding it up automatically, burning off sudden nervous energy.

Jyn pushes her hair out of her face and Cassian catches the faint, dazzling flash of a smile flickering across her face.  “Sounds good, then.  Come on.”

There’s more than a little adjustment as they try to find comfortable positions.  At first, Cassian faces the wall, letting Jyn press her back against his, but it’s impossible for him to relax that way and Jyn feels it in the rigid line of his spine.

She nudges her elbow into his side until he gives in and rolls over.  And the tension breaks, giving way to exhausted relief.  Jagged edges smooth out and slide into place.

“There,” Jyn murmurs, sounding half-asleep as Cassian folds himself into a position that is familiar except for the welcome warmth of Jyn beside him.  He was right before—in this way, they do manage to fit with a sliver of space between them.

He could drape his arm over her and pull her body into him, hold her close while the world slips away, but he doesn’t.  It’s enough to have her near.  

They both drift off to sleep.


	14. Mud on Her Boots - Jyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/168339632844/for-the-first-sentence-prompt-jyn-is-staring-at) for [crazy-fruit](http://crazy-fruit.tumblr.com/) / [Ivaylo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ivaylo/pseuds/Ivaylo) whose art is definitely some of my favorite in this fandom! Go check [their work](http://crazy-fruit.tumblr.com/tagged/myart) out!

Jyn is staring at her boots, counting the mud splatters on top while waiting for Cassian to be finished with the debrief. She’s glad she’s not in there with him, though the mission went fine—went _well,_ even, especially since she got to beat a few ‘Troopers into the ground.

She tries to concentrate on those memories for a second, about the vicious crunch of her truncheons connecting with the gaps between the white armor, the burn of her muscles as she’d grappled with an orange pauldron unit leader before Cassian fired off a shot—a miss, but the distraction gave her the opportunity to snap the guy’s neck and rush over to Cassian’s side.

He was fine, Cassian was fine, a little battered and bruised, but Jyn—panic tasted like blood in the back of her throat.

“You all right?” Cassian had had to yell to be heard over the rain pissing down from the pitch dark sky, and she’d yelled back, “yeah, yeah,” but the downpour and the mud and the dim, glowing lights all around them—she grabbed Cassian’s hand and clung to him so hard she caught him flexing his fingers later after they’d hit hyperspace.

Her clothes have had time to dry out now, but they carry the chill of that storm just as much as the dirt she’d forgotten to scrub off. She kicks her heel against the wall at her back and folds her arms around her torso, shivering down to the marrow.

She could go, could push off the wall and head through the halls to the ‘fresher that awaits, turn the water on so hot in the shower that it burns her pale skin red and maybe clears her head, but she won’t. Can’t. Cassian’s voice passes through the briefing room door, and it curls inside her, traveling all the way down to her toes and rooting her to the floor. 

She glances back down at the mud on her boots and sees a spot that looks kind of like a tailless tooka cat if she squints really hard. And there’s another spot on the other shoe that looks a bit like a thermal detonator, maybe.

She’s trying to name the shape of another smear of mud when the door slides open and the familiar tread of Cassian’s footsteps breaks her concentration.

“Hey,” he says when she glances up and straightens the slump of her shoulders. His gaze on her is soft, surprised, searching. The relief that rushes through Jyn at the sight of him doesn’t make a damn bit of sense, but it makes a home inside her all the same.

He flexes his hands at his sides, and for a second she thinks maybe he’s going to reach up and skim his fingertips along her cheek, tilting her face toward his with a gentleness that always steals her breath. But he only offers her a small, bemused smile. “You didn’t have to wait for me.”

Jyn fumbles for his hand, ducking her head. “I don’t mind,” she says after an absurd amount of time struggling with the ache in her chest, her heart squeezing in the cage of her ribs. _You’re here,_ she doesn’t say, the words snagging on something broken in her. She coughs to dislodge her voice. “Ready to go?”

“Yeah,” Cassian says, and she can still feel his gaze on her like a touch, his concern heavy in the air between them. But he doesn’t say anything else—she’s grateful for that.

They walk down the corridors to their quarters in silence. Jyn lets go of Cassian’s hand, but as they walk side-by-side, his knuckles tap against hers too often to be accidental.

She considers asking him about the debrief, about their next orders, when they’ll ship out, or if they’ll have a sliver of a break—but Cassian keys in the code for the door and pulls her into his arms as soon as the door slides shut after them.

How did he know she needed this. It doesn’t matter—he did. She did.

Jyn sags into Cassian, curling her arms around his torso and twisting her fingers in the back of his jacket. Her forehead presses uncomfortably against a zipper for a second before she shifts and burrows her face in his chest. _There_ —she can feel his heartbeat, can feel the shiver running through him too. He smells like dirty rain and blaster fire, like close calls. There were no close calls, not really, not this time, but—she’s still afraid. Her grip on him is too tight, she’s certain she’s digging into bruises and scars, but Cassian doesn’t complain. He just folds himself around her and presses his mouth against her hair. She shuts her eyes tight and lets herself hold onto him, feeling his chest rise and fall with his breath, his pulse beating against her cheek.

There are words on her tongue, words she hasn’t said to anyone since she was small—words that _are_ small, just three simple syllables. Her lips move, pressing them soundlessly into his shirt. She hopes he can feel them. 

He knows. He knows her.


	15. Safe House, Before the Beginning - Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally a response to the **no excuses writing meme** for a "before the beginning" prompt. This is meant to be before [safe house in the hurricane](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11425506/chapters/25599018) and has been expanded from the post that can be found [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/165385897509/if-youre-still-doing-the-meme-before-the)!
> 
> In other news, merry Christmas to y'all who celebrate the day! <3

There are a lot of shouldn’ts about this upcoming mission—it _shouldn’t_ be difficult, there _shouldn’t_ be trouble, he _shouldn’t_ be gone long. It feels like tempting fate to say much, so Cassian bites his tongue and tries not to let anxiety creep up along his spine and breathe against the back of his neck.

He shouldn’t be worried. The basic plan is to go in, get the lay of the land, find information and sow some seeds of rebellion, and then come home. 

Home. It catches him off-guard still, that he has a home now, something beyond the war as a constant in his life. _Home_ —and it isn’t the traditional definition of one place, not a physical location in the galaxy. It’s the family he never expected to have crowded in the hold of a ship, laughing over caf and sabacc games, and watching each other’s backs in the fight.

Cassian is leaving in the morning, and the truth is, a part of him doesn’t want to go. Kay will be with him for part of the mission, mainly acting as his co-pilot, but a good amount of the time, he will be alone.

Missions like this are nothing new. The mix of feelings before he departs, however, are new. He’s no longer a spy with nothing personal to lose. He has a home. It isn’t a place, it’s people. And it’s one person most of all.

Cassian still hasn’t told Jyn. There should still be time, but if there isn’t—

Jyn is out forging scandocs in another part of the cruiser while Cassian paces around their quarters, gathering up everything he’ll need for the trip. Bodhi sits at the edge of the bed, keeping Cassian company, and Cassian wants to say it out loud, even if it isn’t to the right person. 

“Bodhi,” Cassian says quietly, carefully. He keeps his gaze focused on the task in front of him, his voice coming out raw though he knows Bodhi will keep these words safe. “I love Jyn.”

Bodhi huffs and wraps his fingers gently around Cassian’s wrist, stopping him from shoving more supplies into his pack. “That’s not news. The whole galaxy knows that.”

That pulls a smile to Cassian’s mouth even though he shakes his head. “Can you…”

“Tell her, if something happens to you? Keep an eye on her while you’re gone?”

Cassian’s shoulders twitch with the barest of shrugs. He worries at his bottom lip with his teeth. “Try to convince her to rest, if you can.”

Bodhi reaches over with his free hand and skims his fingertips along Cassian’s cheek, and Cassian lets himself be turned to face his friend. His brother. It’s all right if Bodhi sees.

Bodhi studies Cassian for a long moment before he nods slowly and lets go. “Come back home to us, yeah?”

Cassian nods back, holding Bodhi’s gaze. “I’ll do my best.”

There shouldn’t be anything to worry about.


	16. Tumblr Sentence Prompts Roundup - Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some one sentence prompts on tumblr again! I still have a few more to address, but life is kicking back into high gear now that I am no longer on holiday vacation, so here is what I have so far. As before, links to the original tumblr posts will be with the prompts, but can also be found under my [rough drafts](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/tagged/rough-drafts) tag.
> 
> The first ficlet went slightly NSFW, just FYI, and the second feels like it belongs in the same 'verse as [the FWB ficlet](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10963536/chapters/24407088).

**[“You’ve got a lot of nerve trying that on me right now,”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/169053174704/for-the-sentence-starters-how-about-youve)** Cassian says, trying to concentrate on the datapad in front of him and not on the soft press of Jyn’s mouth against his throat. “I should finish this report.”

Jyn curls a little closer into his side, and he can feel her smile against his skin. It takes a considerable amount of effort not to tilt his head and give her more room. He knows what she’s after. And going for his neck is fighting dirty.

“‘Should’ isn’t ‘have to,’” she murmurs, hooking her leg over his and draping her arm over his torso. The warmth of her body next to his is both comfortable and tempting.

Cassian reads the sentence he was on several times and doesn’t retain any of the meaning as Jyn trails her mouth along his neck and slips her hand beneath his shirt to stroke along his side. She doesn’t move any further than that or try much else, seeming content to be just enough of a distraction to scatter his thoughts.

It would be easy to set the datapad down and roll over, push her down into the mattress beneath them. It would also be easy to curl his arm around her and pull her on top of him, let her have her way. But there’s a challenge in her grin that has him trying to hold himself still.

But when she tugs on his earlobe with her teeth, he fumbles with the datapad and stifles a groan. _“Jyn.”_

Jyn’s laugh is a warm gust of air in his ear. “You want me to stop?”

“No,” he admits and temporarily gives up the fight to not push into her touch as she slides her hand down low on his stomach, running her fingers teasingly beneath his waistband.

“You want to take a break? Or,” Jyn’s voice goes wicked as she draws the word out. Cassian goes hot all over, squirming a little in anticipation. “I had a fun idea—how about we see how long you can keep reading your report while I _amuse_ myself.”

Cassian swallows hard and takes a measured breath. “Can I win at ten minutes?”

Jyn laughs again like she’s already won. “Let’s try for fifteen and if you make it, if you’re very _good_ —” Cassian closes his eyes and doesn’t, doesn’t let himself react to the word. “I’ll let you have me however you want me.”

Cassian opens his eyes and concentrates very hard on the words in front of him. “Deal.”

 

-

 

**[Not this time.](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/169209898014/not-this-time-jyncassian) **

Cassian doesn’t say it, but the words scream in his head as Jyn carefully pushes the covers away from her body and sits up in bed. He knows the routine of this, how she slips out of his bed and dresses herself in the quiet dark before she leaves him. He’s never reached for her before, always asleep or feigning it while she steals away—but this time, the denial in his head is loud enough that a sound escapes him, not the words themselves— _not this time, please stay_ —but still, audible discontent. An inarticulate plea.

Jyn freezes next to him, her naked back a pale wall, the taut lines of her shoulders trip-wires. He swallows down panic and reaches out, presses his fingertips feather-light against her skin. The blades of her shoulders are going to cut him to pieces, he’s sure, but _not this time_ rings out in his head like bells.

She doesn’t move beneath his touch, still as stone. He doesn’t dare press his luck by trailing his hand along her spine, seeking to soothe. But he doesn’t want to pull away either.

His heart is racing, his mouth dry. He swallows again and scrapes his voice out from the pit of his stomach. “You don’t have to go.”

Jyn is silent for a long moment before Cassian hears her exhale, a slow, shivery sound. He waits for her to say something, but she doesn’t.

“You can stay,” he tries again. “If you want.”

Now she turns, just her head, just a little. “You want me to?” Her voice is small. Something woven in the words has him moving closer, palm flat against her back now. He feels her lean into his touch and bravery sparks in his chest.

“I do,” he tells her. “Always, Jyn.”

It’s all right, here in the dark, to give that up to her, to let her hear his heart offered up in those words—her name and _always_.

And Jyn turns. She turns back to him, she climbs back into bed and folds herself up against his chest, letting him wrap his arms around her and haul her in close. She trembles against him, but he doesn’t push, just holds her until she settles.

He’s almost drifted back to sleep when he hears her say, soft like a secret, “I want to stay. Always.”


	17. Tumblr Sentence Prompt Ficlet - "A Scarf" - Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm backdating this one because I realized it got buried in my tumblr, hopefully it doesn't mess up my chapter numbers!

**[You could say that the first gift Cassian gave Jyn was that blaster of his, but the first one she gave him was](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/169326883434/one-sentence-prompt-i-suppose-you-could-say-the)** a scarf. 

He didn’t realize until long after she’d disappeared from sight that it was the scarf she’d worn on Jedha, the grey fabric fraying along the edges and stained with lingering traces of earth. Still later, he noticed a few patches she’d carefully stitched over a few tears.

In the moment, though, she’d touched his hand, fingertips barely grazing his skin before she’d laughed and draped the scarf around his neck. "Stay warm while I’m away,” she’d told him, and he’d—well, every time she touched him, it felt like his nerve endings short-circuited, a startled kind of longing flashing white-hot inside him, so he was plenty warm then. Plenty tongue-tied, too. He hadn’t recovered his voice enough to even wish her well on her Pathfinder op.

She was gone for a month and he wore the scarf every day, fingertips running along the patches as he wound the fabric around his throat in the frigid mornings of Hoth. His mind snagged on quick little images and thoughts of her—the flash of her smile, her scent on his pillow, the way she’d pressed her mouth once against his wrist when he’d been bedridden after Scarif and she’d thought he’d been asleep.

It’s impossible to stay warm on Hoth for long, but the scarf reminds him of her. And it’s a gift, something of hers he keeps close until she comes back.

“Did it help?” she asks him when he meets her in the hangar, tugging lightly on the scarf and bringing his face down close to hers. _Kissing distance,_ he thinks, a flush blooming across his face and the back of his neck, _but it must be unintentional._

“Yes,” he manages to say, helpless against the smile twitching at the corners of his mouth. “Do you want it back?”

Jyn laughs at him, and oh, how he’s missed that sound. “No, keep it,” she tells him, tugging more insistently on the fabric, bringing him closer, closer until he can taste her grin, her lips soft against his.


	18. Cast Some Light (Part 5) Alternate POV - Cassian (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was originally posted on Tumblr in honor of _cast some light_ 's first year anniversary on 22 February! I intend on trying to write an entire alternate POV extra chapter for [dying to be taken apart](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12179187) so hold me to that, friends! In the meantime, hope you enjoy this small snippet of desperate sub!Cassian.
> 
> Happy belated anniversary to the PWP 'verse that broke my writer's block. May you come back to me and do the same soon. <3

**[“I’d like you to fuck yourself into my fist and stop when you’re about to come.”](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/171185384994/okay-but-could-we-have-a-small-snippet-of-dying) **

“Jyn,” Cassian gasps, dropping his weight back down onto the bed, his cock sliding out of the circle of Jyn’s fist.  He bites his lower lip and fights back the heat in his belly, the tightening of his body.  Jyn said to stop when he was about to come, so _stop, stop, be good for her,_ he tells himself, straining against the ropes around his arms and torso because the bite of them helps drag him back from the edge.  He can hold himself together, he can show her that.  

“Jyn, please, I want—” The words tumble out of his mouth, burning on his tongue.  His heartbeat races against Jyn’s palm when she rests a heavy hand on his chest and presses him into the mattress.  

With his arms tied behind his head and her hand holding him down, he feels both pinned and on display, a shivery kind of vulnerability hollowing him out—but Jyn fills in the emptiness, her breath, her scent, the warmth of her body and her voice in his ear, telling him what she wants.   _Be good, show her you can—_

“Do you want to come?” Jyn asks with a warm and wicked laugh that curls inside him and makes him flush with pleasure and embarrassment.  He’s right there, right there, trembling with the effort of trying to be still.  He’s never heard himself make such a sharp whine in his throat when she sucks one of his nipples into her mouth, teases at the nub with her teeth.  There’s a hint of pain, but it doesn’t mask the descent of her hand low along his belly and he _can’t, he can’t—please—_

“No,” he moans, throwing his head back and twisting his hips, his cock jerking and spilling more precome against his skin.   _Please._  “No.”  It’s too much, he can’t bear to be the focus anymore, he has to turn this around, has to be of use to Jyn before he falls apart.

“No?” Jyn strokes his sides soothingly, but her voice betrays her surprise.  Maybe she thought he’d beg to come, but that isn’t right, it wouldn’t be right, he hasn’t done anything to earn it.

He means to say that, means to say, _please let me give to you, let me,_ but he stumbles, each word that comes out of his mouth halting, desperate until he almost manages to get to the heart of it: “This is for you.”

Jyn is silent.  

Jyn is silent and still, though her hands rest gentle against his ribs, holding him together when he feels like he’ll fly apart.  Cassian clenches his jaw against the ice-cold anxiety jolting down his spine, the fear of rejection snapping in the face of sense— _this is Jyn,_ Jyn, _home and light and love, still here, still_ —but he can’t look at her face, terrified of what his offering means to her.  Maybe it’s too much, maybe he should have just taken what she wanted to give him, even though he hasn’t done anything for her yet.  He wants to be good, wants to please her—and isn’t this about her, about listening to her, and he _didn’t—_

Jyn’s hand cups the side of his face, warm, grounding, turning him toward her.  “Hey, Cassian, look at me.” Her voice slices through his spiraling thoughts, pulling him back from that storm, rays of sunlight cutting through grey.  He shivers as the ice cracks and melts. He can’t meet her gaze yet, though her words reach him, insistent. “What you want matters. _You_ matter.  You’re good to me.”

He asked for this.  After she talked through her plans for him, she had asked him what he wanted.  Heart pounding and face flushed with embarrassment, he’d asked her for _praise_.  He hadn’t prepared himself to get it.

It’s _agonizing_.  

_You’re good to me._  Those words slide between his ribs like the blade of a knife, burying deep in his heart and twisting against his bones, fracturing him open and flooding him with heat.  He flinches the way he never does when his hand is on a gun, straining again against the ropes around his arms, but Jyn is there, draping her body over his, her hands against his skin.  He wants to tell her, _don’t_ , afraid the jagged edges of his heart will cut her, but she holds him together until the feeling begins to fade and the world reorients itself.  
   
Jyn.  She surrounds him, enveloping him with the feel of her body, the scent of her skin.  She kisses him, tender and soft and loving. _You matter._

“You’re good to me,” Jyn repeats, and Cassian somehow finds the strength to finally look at her, her light chasing away all shadows.  “Do you believe me? Do you trust me?”

“I trust you,” he says, helpless.  He’s lost in the starlight caught in her green eyes.  But it’s all right. She feels like home.

She presses a kiss to his forehead, a gift, a blessing, and he—all he wants is to deserve the gentleness she’s giving him.  “You don’t have anything to prove,” she tells him, kissing his cheeks. He’s burning up beneath her now, her words sparks catching flame.  “I’m here with you. You—you matter to me, Cassian. Tell me what you want.”

Cassian doesn’t know how he finds the daring to kiss her then, this supernova of a woman.  He turns, turns, turns toward her, her lips on his salvation.  “I want to make you come,” he says when she breaks away, every fiber of his being full of desire. “Before me. Please.”


	19. Not Done Yet - Cassian (NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/171630129779/fic-fragment-what-the-hell-casually-leaves-this) and has a similar idea to / sort of jumped off of an earlier ficlet. Clearly this idea has stuck in my brain! So consider this another potential to-be-expanded fic! XD

Sometimes Cassian is greedy when it comes to Jyn.

He lays her down on their bed and buries his face between her legs and tries to take his time, eat her out nice and slow, savoring her. But some nights it isn’t enough to have her shake apart beneath him just once.

Her hands tug hard on his hair, her thighs trembling and heels digging into his back, the inner walls of her cunt clenching down around his fingers, his tongue—and it echoes in his ears, that high, sharp cry as her orgasm breaks over her. With her slick warm and wet all over his mouth, her voice shivering down his spine, he hitches her closer and thinks, _more_.

Jyn is fire beneath Cassian’s hands, a star flaring to life and he is more than happy to be consumed. Not a bad way to go—Jyn clutching at him, the heat of her cunt against his lips. He thought he was going to die in her arms on Scarif. That thought of dying wrapped up in her still feels right.

But he isn’t thinking about death when he curls his fingers inside her, a grin tugging at his mouth. Her hips jerk, her swollen clit trapped against his tongue. “Cassian,” she moans as he suckles at her, sweat glistening on her skin, her cheeks and chest flushed. 

The walls of her cunt are still contracting around his fingers, and she makes a gorgeous sound when he carefully pulls his fingers almost out of her before sliding back in. He runs his free hand up along her quivering torso and then back down to press low on her belly as he rocks his fingers in a slow, deep rhythm, wondering if he can add another finger, if he can work her back up to the edge again so soon after she’s already come.

Jyn’s hands sift through his hair then scrabble at his shoulders before traveling back up over his ears, the sides of his head, restless. “Cassian, what are you—” She breaks off with a sharp whine when he flicks his tongue against her clit. He gentles his mouth, carefully circling around the little nub, and a shudder rolls through her body like a wave. _“Cassian.”_

Her fingers clench in his hair, yanking him away from her cunt even as her pelvis tilts, chasing him.

Cassian pins her hips down with his forearm and forces himself to go still, breathing against her hip. “You okay?”

 _“Fuck,”_ Jyn gasps for air and then laughs. “ _Stars_ , Cassian, don’t be smug. I already came.“

“Good.” Cassian hums, trailing open-mouthed kisses high on Jyn’s inner thighs, can’t help himself. Her hips twitch, betraying the conflict in her with tiny abortive movements that leave him hot and hungry, tempted to duck his head back down for another full taste of her. She’s so wet, the shine of her arousal glistening in her dark curls and down his hand. He wants to lick into her and go back to watching the mesmerizing sight of his fingers disappearing into her heat, but he needs to know if she’s saying no. “Do you want to stop?”

Jyn takes a breath and shakes her head. “Stay. You do feel good,” she says, a faint note of wondering in her voice. “But I already came. What about you?”

One of Jyn’s hands trails down the side of Cassian’s face, and he turns to press a kiss to her palm before he smiles up at her. “I have what I want right here.”


	20. The Middle of It - Cassia (slight NSFW)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was for [anghraine / Elizabeth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anghraine/pseuds/Elizabeth)'s birthday and is part of their [queer Rogue One fic 'verse](https://archiveofourown.org/series/831285) which is a Thing of Beauty that I absolutely adore and intend on visiting again. <3 Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/172006945124/belated-happy-birthday-to-anghraine-3)!

_I never forget anything,_ Cassia told Jyn on the balcony—and it was true, she kept memories like a deck of cards to be shuffled through, or a box of files to be sorted and tucked away into a corner.  Moments with Jyn weren’t like either of those things, though, more of keepsakes folded into a small, private place, safe from anyone else’s eyes but her own.

There were little moments at first—the sharp flash of a smile, the touch of a hand, a kiss that tasted of blood and hope, another that tasted of moonlight and possibility.  The shape of Jyn’s mouth when she’d said, _yes_ , meaning _yes, I’ll stay_ , and Cassia dared to hope that meant _with you_  in addition to the Rebellion.

A collection of little moments, carefully hoarded and treasured and only touched on briefly because to put too much weight on them seemed like tempting fate.  So the realization of—of _love_ —it crept up on Cassia.

The words caught in her throat, unvoiced except in the warmth of Jyn’s name on her tongue.  Jyn with strong, scarred hands around Cassia’s wrists, pinning Cassia to the bed with her body and a sharp smile, a beautiful challenge, a dare—surrender had never sounded sweet before.  “Jyn,” Cassia gasped as Jyn pressed her lips to Cassia’s throat, soft save for a hint of teeth.   _“Jyn.”_

Jyn laughed, a low, quiet hum that sunk into Cassia’s bloodstream and set her heart racing.  “I’m here,” Jyn said, and there was a faint note of wonder in the words, like she was caught up in this, too, the promise of _here_.  

_Yes, I’ll stay with you._


	21. Sleeping Arrangements Addition - Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is a bit of a belated posting of this. I was rearranging my Rebelcaptain To Write List to organize myself for the Rebelcaptain Icebergs + in prep for the Rebelcaptain Smut Weekend going on this weekend, and I found this small continuation of the [Sleeping Arrangements](https://archiveofourown.org/works/10963536/chapters/29326860) ficlet. It's been getting some notes on [Tumblr](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/171837960189/i-rewrote-and-reorganized-my-rebelcaptain-to-write), so I figured I'd put it up here for safe keeping. :)

Jyn stays.  She doesn’t have much in the way of personal belongings, but it still takes a scattered handful of nights for her to bring everything over to Cassian’s quarters.  She brings small items over, one by one, leaving them in the space casually—her datapad suddenly in a desk drawer, her toothbrush by the sink. 

They don’t talk about it.  Cassian doesn’t know how to touch the subject, so he just makes sure she knows the code for the door and waits for her to make herself at home.

His quarters become theirs.   _Ours_.

They maintain a careful distance in bed for awhile.  Touching each other is inevitable in the small space, the tangling of limbs something that happens but goes relatively unacknowledged.  

—until Jyn shakes awake from a nightmare and rolls over, reaching out.  She presses her palm against Cassian’s chest, her knees knocking into his and her breath shivering out.

Cassian is wide awake, but tries to keep his breathing steady and even, though the skipping of his heart beneath Jyn’s hand betrays him.

“You were dead,” she whispers, tears thick in her voice.  She shudders, head tipping down and shoulders curving inward.  “You died on the beach at Scarif before Bodhi came.”

“I didn’t,” Cassian says, laying one hand over hers on his chest and then daring to brush the fingertips of his other hand across her cheek, then over her hair.  Jyn folds herself into him, tucking her face into his neck, gasping. And he lets himself hold her, tells her, “I’m here, we’re both right here,” until she stops shaking and can fall back asleep.

Cassian stays awake, keeping watch.


	22. Round Robin Headcanon Fic - Jyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally posted [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/172429729994/sleepykalena-mnemehoshiko-headcanon-that) and is absolutely tied to the [original headcanon post](http://mnemehoshiko.tumblr.com/post/155408076526/headcanon-that-its-traditional-on-fest-for-the) and then sleepykalena's [first part ficlet](https://sleepykalena.tumblr.com/post/172398735703/mnemehoshiko-headcanon-that-its-traditional-on). Part three (or four or five or...) is fair game to whoever feels inspired! ~~Griffin McElroy voice: "come play with me in this space!!!!"~~
> 
> Be sure to go give [sleepykalena](https://archiveofourown.org/users/SleepyKalena/pseuds/SleepyKalena) some love too! <3
> 
>  **ETA** : [skitzofreak](https://skitzofreak.tumblr.com) has written [part three](https://skitzofreak.tumblr.com/post/172527772684/brynnmclean-mnemehoshiko-brynnmclean)!!!! The thread continues!!!! Go check it out!!!!!

Absurdly, Cassian saying Jyn could keep the blaster felt like a gift. Something about the quiet way he’d said, _it’s yours,_ and the small smile she’d caught shifting across his face, the twitch of his lip, the subtle warmth in his eyes. 

She’d been grateful, of course, to keep the gun. She had grown used to the weight of it in her hand and her holster. And on a basic level, it was nice to not have to find another one. This one was— well. She wouldn’t dare admit to being sentimental about objects, but there was a personal history to this blaster. She’d carried it on Jedha, Eadu, Scarif, and after. And it had been Cassian’s before she’d nicked it. She hadn’t been subtle about the theft, had certainly not been subtle with that challenge she’d thrown before his feet on Yavin— _trust goes both ways._

He let her keep it. Both times. But it felt different the second time.

 _It’s yours,_ he’d said with careful emphasis, pushing it toward her. Their fingertips brushed when she’d taken it back, and her heart rebelled against her sense, skipping a beat before it began to race.

It was ridiculous to read anything beneath his words. To hope that when he said, _I’d like you to keep it,_ there was some deeper meaning as to why. She tried very hard not to hope it meant _something._ Something more than a gesture of friendship. One comrade in arms to another. She tried to just take what was offered and not search for more.

Her head knew he would leave, even if her heart did not. That was just the way of things. Even though he looked at her sometimes with a softness in his eyes. Even though he’d welcomed her home. Even though—well. She’d stolen a kiss from him once, a kiss that tasted of blood and tears and desperate hope. She hadn’t stolen another. She couldn’t risk more.

When he left for a mission he wouldn’t come back from, she’d have his old blaster to remember him by, the comfortable physical weight of it against her thigh. No one would know about the secret little box locked inside her, the private record she kept of all the times they’d touched.

 _Ridiculous,_ her head told her heart, and yet. Every brush of their hands, every inexplicable glance, every time they fell into step with one another or she swung into his orbit.

Yesterday, he’d left for a mission and she’d gotten brave—or _stupid_ —enough to take his hand in hers. Five seconds of holding his hand, her voice tremulous— _be safe, Cassian_ —before she darted away, face burning.

“I’m an idiot,” she breathed into the steam rising from her caf, and then she gulped it down like penance.

She heard the tell tale stomping of Kaytoo behind her before his shadow crossed over her breakfast. “Hello Kay,” she said without looking up.

Kaytoo clomped around the other side of the table and then put something down on the surface with a clink. “I have compiled information for you on this datacard,” he said without preamble. “I hope it proves useful to you.”

Jyn reached out and took the little card, glancing up and meeting the droid’s optics curiously. “What is it? Am I being sent out somewhere?”

“No,” Kay replied with a touch of impatience or exasperation—the caf hadn’t kicked in, it was a little difficult for Jyn to tell. “This is about Cassian. I have calculated that your relations will improve by 75% if you gain cultural knowledge of Festian customs. I have taken this upon myself because you organics insist on making things…” The droid paused, tilting his head incrementally to one side, his optics flashing a little. “… Complicated,” he finally decided.

Jyn squinted at him and then at the datacard. “I have no idea what you’re talking about, Kay.”

It wasn’t possible for droids to sigh, as they didn’t need to breathe, but Kay made a sound that seemed very much like the mechanical equivalent. “75%, Jyn.”

And with that, he left her to her confusion and the remainder of her breakfast. She flipped the datacard over between her fingers for a few minutes before she slid it into one of the pockets of her vest. It felt warm against her heart, even though the layers of cloth.


	23. Kiss Prompt - Scars & Insecurity - Jyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My birthday was yesterday, June 24, and over that weekend I posted some ficlets on Tumblr for a few kiss prompts. You can find a round up post about what I was calling the Hobbit Birthday Weekend [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/175238452099/hi-all-so-in-case-you-missed-them-heres-a-small)!
> 
> This first ficlet was for [imsfire](https://archiveofourown.org/users/imsfire/works) for the prompts _a kiss on a scar_ and _a kiss on a place of insecurity._

The gloves are utterly ruined.  Significant parts of the leather are shredded and blood stained—Jyn would not have called herself sentimental, but there’s a lump in her throat when she quietly disposes of them.  She’d had that pair for years, careful not to lose them like she had Maia’s synthskin gloves. But she can’t keep stitching them together when they’re down to just thin scraps, unable to serve their purpose at keeping her hands safe from the heat of a blaster or a jagged edge of shrapnel.

“You can get a new pair,” she mutters to herself, flexing her bare hands in annoyance.  Her skin feels strange without the protective layer over it. Naked.

She flips her hands over and grimaces at the scars along her palms and wrists.

It’s the wrist scars that bother her the most, if she’s honest, the rough edges where shackles bit into her skin over and over until she’d been left raw and bleeding.  The edge of a glove hid some of it, enough that she could ignore the sight and the memories that came with it. She can look at her scars there and sometimes feel a vicious kind of pride— _I escaped, I survived, I rebel_ —but other times there’s a different thought, a private voice that tells her it’s not possible for someone with such ungentle hands to ever find softness.  Happiness. Peace.

Jyn yanks down on her sleeves to cover the marks and curls her hands into fists, shoving them into the pockets of her jacket as she stomps down the corridors.  It’s stupid to be self-conscious; no one will notice her hands or her wrists. No one pays her appearance that much mind, except maybe Cassian. Cassian with his spy’s attention to detail and his intense regard for her.  

She’s not oblivious.  Even if Cassian isn’t looking directly at her, if they’re in the same room, she can feel his awareness of her.  It doesn’t bother her as much as it could—probably because she’s aware of him, too.  And his attention doesn’t feel intrusive, it’s more like… he’s watching out for her.  Even checking in, sometimes. She finds herself doing the same thing, automatically searching him out in a crowded room and breathing easier when she finds him.

Cassian will notice her hands, but he won’t say anything.  Maybe. Probably. He has scars of his own. Jyn has seen them in glimpses out of the corners of her eyes, snatched moments in close quarters on ships or in the middle of missions, small slivers of pain that bacta couldn’t erase.   

She hasn’t reached out and touched, though she’s wanted.  She hasn’t felt his bare skin beneath her hands, hasn’t really seen if the edges of him are as rough and ungentle as hers.

She wants to touch him.  The desire that curls in her belly and itches in her fingertips makes her want all kinds of unfamiliar things—softness.  Happiness. Peace. Even if it’s only scraps stolen and painstakingly stitched together into patchwork that will keep her warm and safe for a breath of time.

In spite of the scar tissue on her heart, her pulse beats out a rhythm that says: _worth it_.  And maybe it would be, reaching for him if only for a moment.

Jyn doesn’t have time to get new gloves before the evening meal, but luckily it’s family dinner night with the rest of the Rogue One crew, so she doesn’t feel too self-conscious.  They’re a safe haven, all of them.

She was right before, though.  Right and wrong. Cassian does notice her hands, yes, but he also does say something, after all.  He waits until everyone else’s attention is elsewhere and they have some privacy before he catches her right hand in his.  

His fingertips aren’t soft, gun calluses catching hers, but the movement is slow, gentle. “What happened to your gloves?” he asks, sounding only mildly curious, but concern flashes in his eyes and Jyn—Jyn tries to show no sign of the warmth suddenly flooding through her.  He’s holding her hand. Something so simple shouldn’t send such an electric jolt through her.

“They weren’t salvageable anymore,” she says, glad her voice comes out steady.

Cassian doesn’t let go of her hand, his thumb pressing lightly into her palm. Jyn watches him trace over her lifelines and the outline of a burn.  Her breath catches in her throat as he slides his grip down to reach the cuff scars. Anyone else, she’d jerk away—and she could, he isn’t holding her tightly at all, but… she lets him.  The brush of his fingers on her skin can’t be called anything other than a caress. She lets him.

“They’re ugly, aren’t they?” she says, just to say something really, or maybe to face the tauntaun in the room head on.  “I’m going to the quartermaster tomorrow to pick up new gloves. Spare everyone the sight.”

Cassian glances up from his study of her hand and frowns.  Jyn meets his gaze for a moment and then has to look away, biting the inside of her cheek to hopefully stop herself from flushing.

It’s a futile effort because Cassian carefully lifts her hand up and presses a kiss to her wrist, right along the marks.  Heat sparks in her blood, rushing through her so fast she sways on her feet.

“Whatever makes you comfortable, Jyn,” Cassian says, letting her hand slip out of his grasp.  His voice is as gentle as his lips had been. “But don’t feel that you need to hide.” She faces him again and catches the flash of nerves he tries to cover with a small smile.  “Not from me.”


	24. Kiss Prompts - No Motive & Small Rejection - Jyn

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting two of these here since they're both Jyn's POV and small. Again, the round up post can be found [here](http://brynnmclean.tumblr.com/post/175238452099/hi-all-so-in-case-you-missed-them-heres-a-small).
> 
> These ficlets were for prompts from [sassysnowperson](https://archiveofourown.org/users/DramaticEntrance/pseuds/SassySnowperson), [TinCanTelephone](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TinCanTelephone/pseuds/TinCanTelephone), and [melanoradrood](https://archiveofourown.org/users/melanoradrood/pseuds/melanoradrood).

**A kiss without a motive.**

Jyn doesn’t know why she does it.  There isn’t any reason for it other than—other than it feels right to do it.

Cassian lies there in the hospital bed, his chest rising and falling steadily as machines quietly whir and beep next to him, pumping medicine into him to help him heal from the latest firefight, another mission that nearly took his life.

Nearly took him away from her.

It’s—not right to think of the situation that way.  She has no claim to Cassian, not in a way she can articulate beyond the secret longing in her heart.

He’s asleep now.  He woke up long enough to struggle against the medical droids sticking him with IVs and to call out for her—she’d been there at his side in an instant, grasping his hand and telling him, I’m here.   _It’s okay, we’re safe, I’m here._

Here at his bedside, still holding his hand while he sleeps. Cassian. Her partner. Her… something else. She can’t name it.

He’s asleep now, so he doesn’t see her dip her head down, doesn’t feel her press a kiss against his wrist.  

His pulse beats steady beneath her lips.  Proof of life. Gratitude leaves a lump in her throat, twisting her breathing.  She squeezes her eyes shut against the burn of tears and kisses him again just one more time, so soft and careful.

He’s here. So is she.

 

-

 

**A kiss after a small rejection.**

The words don’t come out of Cassian’s throat, but his hands say enough, grasping Jyn’s wrists and yanking her away from the fastenings of his clothes.  Jyn is so startled by the change in mood that she nearly stumbles backing off from him.  But Cassian doesn’t let her go, clasping her hands in the sudden space between their bodies.

“Sorry,” Cassian manages the same time an apology also falls from Jyn’s lips, and Jyn is horrified to hear herself laugh, an awkward, embarrassed reaction.

She shakes her head.  “Don’t apologize.  What’s wrong?”

Cassian presses her hands against the unsteady rise and fall of his chest.  She can feel the galloping of his pulse and forces herself to stay still instead of reaching up to touch his face or to card her fingers through his hair.  She doesn’t want to come across as pushing past the line he clearly just drew. 

His grip on her wrists loosens and he licks his lips.  That latter nervous tick normally drives Jyn crazy with the desire to hook his bottom lip between her teeth, but Cassian’s whole body is still stiff with obvious discomfort and the absolute last thing she wants to do is make that worse.  She backtracks through her latest actions, trying to put some of the pieces together.  She’d been sliding her hand down to the front of his trousers— 

“Sorry,” Cassian whispers again, his gaze flickering over her and then darting to some point in the room and sticking there.  His voice comes out halting, the way it does when he’s having trouble finding exactly what he wants to say.  “I’d rather not,” he finally settles on, still not looking at her directly.  “I think kissing is fine, but I don’t want to go further than that right now.  If that’s all right.”

Oh.  “Of course that’s all right,” she says, allowing herself now to cup his face between her hands, encouraging him to look at her and see that she means it.  “Of course, Cassian.  Whatever you need.”

When he meets her gaze, she smiles and goes up on her tiptoes to brush a kiss against his mouth, something soft and sweet and hopefully reassuring.  It only lasts a moment, but it’s enough for him to begin to melt in front of her.  She hopes he knows she understands.

He asks to hold her, wanting to stay close.  They settle together on their bed, her back pressed against his chest, his arms around her, and his face buried in the fall of her hair.

“Good?” she asks as he kisses her temple then rests his chin on top of her head.

“Yes,” he says, and then quieter—“Thank you.”


	25. Kiss Prompt - A Comfort - Cassian

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the final kiss prompt I managed to fill for my Birthday Weekend and will be the last ficlet posted in this collection because I don't want this round up fic to get too unwieldy. 25 chapters seemed like a nice place to cut this one off and I think this ficlet is a good leaving off point.
> 
> This one was for [anghraine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anghraine/pseuds/Elizabeth) for the prompt _a kiss as a comfort_.
> 
> Thank you, everyone, for reading. <3

Cassian found her after the briefing in their quarters—in the little bubble of safety they’d built together, the room where they could pretend to shut out the war.  Jyn had bolted from Draven’s office as soon as they’d been dismissed, and though Cassian had been tempted to catch her arm, he’d let her go instead, let her have the space she needed.  He’d spoken with Draven a little longer, though when he’d walked down the corridors afterward, he couldn’t remember what exactly they’d said, his mind still turning the news over and over, picking at it like stitches in a wound.

The Empire was building another Death Star.

He and Jyn had both suspected it—the ghost of it in low murmurs with contacts and the frightened eyes of informants, dearly-bought scraps of information forming the shadowy spectre that filled them both with dread.  

 _Do you think—I hope not_ , they’d told each other, not daring to say much more, just holding each other tight.  Two people huddling together in the dark before the next day brought in the next fight.

Jyn was sitting on their bunk, her back against the wall and her head in her hands.  Cassian sat down next to her, shoulder to shoulder.  It took him a long time to break the silence that fell between them.

“What was it you said before Scarif?”  His voice was hoarse, wavering a little with exhaustion.  “The next chance?”

Jyn shuddered beside him, but she nodded once, a short and sharp gesture.  Tears glittered in her eyes when she finally lifted her head and met his gaze.  But there was fire there, too, the burning heart of her that lit the answering flame in his chest.

“We’ll take the next chance,” he said, reaching for her hand.

She met him halfway and then came closer, kissing him, murmuring her response against his lips: “And the next.”

He finished the vow, and then they returned to the fight.


End file.
